


Just Breathe

by bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid



Series: Solitude is Creativity's Best Friend [1]
Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: 1x04, Episode Tag, F/M, Gil does his best to help anne who is desperately pretending she wants nothing to do with him, Hurt/Comfort, smoke inhalation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23235097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid/pseuds/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid
Summary: Anne wakes up from a coughing fit after inhaling smoke while helping to save the Gillis' house. Not wanting to wake Ruby up she decides to go for a walk in the woods and ends up in front of a (definitely not) chivalrous boy's house.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Series: Solitude is Creativity's Best Friend [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670578
Comments: 5
Kudos: 158





	Just Breathe

Anne could feel it rising up in her lungs, a cough that she couldn’t suppress. She turned her head away from Ruby and tried to cough softly, but that did little to ease the weight in her chest. She’d rinsed off all of the ash from her body and clothes, but it felt as if some of the ash had settled inside of her lungs and despite drinking a large amount of water it was still there.

Anne sat up slowly, mindful of the sleeping girl beside her. Ruby had only been asleep for a short while and it had been hard for her to fall asleep. Her peer had been through a lot of trauma that night and could use all the rest she could get. The last thing she needed was to be awoken by Anne’s coughing. It would only serve as a harsh reminder of what had transpired.

Anne tiptoed out of the door, shutting it softly beside her. She crept down the hallway and then down the stairs. She was relieved to find the downstairs empty. Marilla and Matthew must still be out finishing up with the morning chores. Anne finally let out a few of the hacking coughs she’d been holding in. She hoped Marilla and Matthew finished up soon and were able to make their own way to bed. They had to be just as tired as she and Ruby were.

Anne heard the sounds of footsteps on the front porch. Marilla was practically a mind reader.

“I’ll just put the eggs away and then I’ll help you milk the cows and then we can catch a bit of shut-eye,” She called out, most likely to Matthew.

Anne quickly scrambled out of the back door. She could feel another coughing fit coming on and the last thing she wanted at that moment was to be scolded by Marilla. Marilla’s gratitude that she was okay had outweighed her anger in the moments after Anne had run out of Ruby’s burning house. A little while later, however, Marilla had calmed down and told Anne that after they all got some rest, they needed to have a real talk about her putting herself in danger like that.

If Marilla heard Anne coughing, she’d just realize all over again how risky Anne’s actions had been. So instead, Anne put off their conversation by sneaking away from Green Gables.

Anne walked through the woods for a while, not paying much attention to where she was going. She had to stop several times to cough. Eventually, she found a nice log to sit out and settled in so as to not aggravate her lungs further. She was really wishing she’d thought to bring some water, even though it really wasn’t helping with the smoke in her lungs.

Anne was in the middle of a particularly bad coughing fit when she heard a twig snap behind her. She spun around to see just about the last person she wanted to see.

“Anne?” Gilbert Blythe asked, hurrying towards her. Anne purposefully ignored the way her stomach did a flip when he said her name. Gilbert crouched in front of her, his hands were outstretched like he wanted to help her but wasn’t sure if it was welcome.

“What...are you...doing here?” Anne asked breathlessly. It was suddenly very hard to catch her breath and she wasn’t quite sure if it was because of the smoke inhalation or the concern in Gilbert’s hazel eyes.

“Shhh, just focus on breathing for a second. Take slow, deep breaths with me,” Gilbert said in a soft tone, demonstrating for her how to breathe. In any other circumstance, Anne would’ve been greatly offended at his patronizing words. But at the current moment, she was actually having great difficulty breathing and his calm voice was helping to ground her. She focused on breathing with Gilbert and after a few minutes her coughs had subsided and her breathing had returned to normal. Gilbert gave her a disarming smile and moved to sit next to her. Anne had to resist the urge to scooch further away from him.

“What are you doing here, Gilbert Blythe?” Anne asked again, now that she could breathe.

“My house is right through those trees,” He said, pointing with a teasing smile. “I was getting firewood when I heard you coughing.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize I was so close…” Anne said. She’d been wandering around in a daze, but of course, she would end up practically on Gilbert’s doorstep. Sometimes the universe hated her so.

“You breathed in more smoke then you let on, didn’t you?” Gilbert asked, bringing the topic back to her cough. He was still looking at her in concern and she had an irrational wish to smash another slate across his head.

“It was hard not to,” Anne ground out in the most civilized way possible.

“How about you come inside and I can get you some water or make you some tea?” Gilbert offered. Anne was surprised by the invitation, especially since she was going out of her way to be cold to him. 

Gilbert was being so kind and sweet and Anne was feeling so lousy that she almost accepted his invitation. Almost. But then she remembered that Ruby was currently staying in her house and that Anne had been warned to stay away from Gilbert. If any of the girls found out that Anne had tea at Gilbert’s house she would never be able to show her face at school again.

“I can’t,” said Anne, panicking slightly.

“Okay, okay,” Gilbert held up his hands in an easy surrender. “But how about I just get you some water for your walk home?”

“Fine,” Anne agreed, not because she liked Gilbert, but because it was the polite thing to do. She knew how disappointed Marilla would be in her if she found out that Anne had been impolite to a boy just trying to help.

“Good, okay,” Gilbert said, standing up and looking surprised that she’d accepted his offer. “I’ll be right back, please don’t go anywhere,” He said looking at her like she might disappear.

“Just be quick, I don’t want Marilla or Matthew to notice I’m gone,” Anne said. Gilbert took off in a half jog towards his house, looking back over his shoulder as if to make sure she hadn’t run away yet.

As soon as he was out of sight, Anne let out a deep sigh. That caused her to cough, but she was able to reign them in by practicing the breathing technique Gilbert had shown her.

“Why?” She whispered, looking up at the sky. “Why do you do this to me? Are you trying to make sure I don’t make any friends in Avonlea?” Anne implored whatever deity kept bringing her and Gilbert together. “Okay, Gilbert will come back with the water, I will leave, and no one ever has to know we spent time together or talked.” Anne stood up and started pacing slowly back and forth, her anxiety not allowing her to be still. “Later we will bring some baked goods to the workers and I will just make sure to ignore him so he has to interact with Ruby. Yeah...that should work.” Even as Anne spoke the words, she knew that it would be easier said than done. Gilbert seemed bound and determined to turn into the bane of her existence.

“Anne?” A slightly panicked voice called from the woods behind her. Anne walked back to the log where she’d been sitting and raised her eyebrows at Gilbert. “Oh, there you are. I’d thought you had left.”

“No, just...stretching my legs,” Anne finished lamely and sat back on the log. Gilbert sat next to her and handed her a mug full of steaming liquid.

“This looks like more than water,” She said peering inside.

“It’s ginger tea, inhale the steam as you drink it, it will help your lungs,” Gilbert said. His self-assured tone made Anne want to disobey just to deprive him of the satisfaction, but the tea smelled really good and she could feel another coughing bout coming on. “Just drink this cup and then I’ll give you the water and you can leave and go back to despising me. It’ll help, I promise,” Gilbert added with a small smile, sensing her hesitation. Anne sipped it slowly and then held the mug up beneath her mouth so she could breathe in the steam. The tea was really delicious, not that she would ever tell Gilbert that.

“How do you know so much about all of this?” Anne asked curiously.

“My dad…” Gilbert stopped to clear his throat. “He has trouble breathing sometimes so the doctor told me some ways to help. The breathing exercise I showed you earlier and the ginger tea help him most of the time.”

“Oh…” Anne trailed off, sipping her tea. Usually, she had a million things to say, but at the current moment, her mind was blank. She didn’t really want to hear too much more about Gilbert’s father. She knew he was sick and that Gilbert had been traveling with him to try to find a treatment or something. Anne was afraid if Gilbert kept talking about how he was caring for his sick dad she might start to feel sympathy for him. She didn’t want to feel anything for Gilbert other than disdain, anger, or indifference.

“How did you know all of that stuff about the fire?” Gilbert asked, saving Anne from figuring out something to say.

“Fire manual at the or-” Anne started but cut herself off. “I like to read, I will pretty much read anything I can get my hands on. Books, pamphlets, manuals, you name it, I will read it. I am also very curious so when I saw the fire manual I couldn’t help myself. I thought some of that information might be useful someday and it looks like I was right. I read that fire needs oxygen and fuel so if you can deprive it of its fuel it is likely to slow down. So I went through the house closing all of the doors and windows,” Anne said, babbling slightly to cover up her mention of the orphanage. The last thing she wanted was to have Gilbert Blythe asking her questions about being an orphan.

“We are all very lucky that you are a curious person,” Gilbert said with a grin, but it didn’t look like he was teasing her.

“Well it’s certainly gotten me in trouble before, but at least this time it helped,” Anne shrugged off her actions. She had seen a way she could help and had just done it without much thought. The same way Gilbert, Matthew, and Jerry had. Gilbert had climbed onto the roof of a burning house for goodness sake. That was at least as dangerous as what she’d done.

“Yes it did,” Gilbert said softly.

“Well,” Anne said, standing up suddenly. Gilbert blinked in surprise and then followed her action. Anne held out the now empty mug to him. Gilbert smiled and exchanged the mug for a jar filled with water. “Thank you,” Anne said and started to walk away.

“Anne?” Gilbert called after her. She took a deep breath and turned around to face him.

“Yes?”

“Just...take care of yourself,” Gilbert said, seeming to rethink what he’d originally been about to say. 

“Yeah, you too,” Anne said and then turned and walked away as fast as her still burning lungs would let her.

There were two things about that interaction that she would never admit to anyone. The first one was that she was left breathless by Gilbert’s smile and kind actions. The second thing was that she wasn’t left breathless because of the smoke inhalation because Gilbert’s remedy of ginger tea was actually really helpful and she wished she could have another cup.

***10 Years Later***

Anne sat up slowly, mindful of the person sleeping beside her. Anne could feel it rising up in her lungs, a cough that she couldn’t suppress. She turned her head away from her husband and tried to cough softly, but that did little to ease the weight in her chest. 

Anne started to get up so she didn’t wake him up, but before she could stand up, she felt a hand grasp her wrist.

“Uh oh, I recognize that sound,” Gilbert said sleepily, looking at her through half-opened eyes.

“The sound of me getting up to get some water?” Anne said, trying to play it off.

“The sound of you resisting the urge to cough. You’re getting sick too aren’t you?” Gilbert asked, sitting fully up and looking at her closely. There was a nasty flu making its way through the Blythe household. Anne and Gilbert had spent the better part of a week nursing various children back to health. Anne had been hoping that the ache she’d been feeling all day long was just a result of long nights with little sleep, but when she’d woken up coughing she’d realized the truth.

“Yes,” Anne admitted.

“I’ll put the kettle on,” Gilbert said, he leaned over to kiss her but she pulled away.

“Don’t, you’ll get infected,” She said.

“That ship has probably already sailed, darling,” He said with a sigh, but kissed her on the forehead instead. “Mm, you’re a little bit warm,” Gilbert said with a frown.

“Good thing I married a doctor,” Anne responded.

“Medical researcher, technically,” Gilbert corrected out of habit, causing Anne to laugh. Her laugh morphed into coughs and Gilbert ran his hand along her back. “Just breathe, sweetie.” Anne breathed deep breaths with him and when her coughing stopped he stood up. “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here,” Anne whispered in response. She leaned back on the pillows and closed her eyes. She must’ve dozed off because the next thing she knew, Gilbert was back with two steaming cups of Ginger tea. “Mmm, this is the best part of being sick,” Anne said after taking a sip.

“Plus being doted on by your loving husband,” Gilbert said.

“Yes, plus that,” Anne took another sip, thinking about the first time she’d had Gilbert’s ginger tea.

“Remember the first time I made you that tea?” Gilbert asked as if he was reading Anne’s mind.

“I do, I don’t think I ever told you how much I really appreciated that. You were so sweet and kind and I was so cold to you.”

“Yeah well you were spending most of your energy on pretending that you despised me,” Gilbert said with an easy laugh.

“I did despise you!” Anne exclaimed.

“Shh,” Gilbert said with another laugh. Anne lowered her volume, aware of their children sleeping in the other rooms in the house.

“I didn’t really despise you,” She admitted.

“I know that now, but you were pretty convincing at the time.”

“I had myself convinced for a while,” Anne said with a soft laugh. “But now I can freely admit how much I enjoy this tea.”

Gilbert reached up to brush his hand down her cheek and then tucked the hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear.

“I’m glad we’ve progressed to the point where you can openly admit to liking something I’ve made,” He said with a teasing smile. “Maybe someday you’ll even admit to liking me.”

“Oh but I do like you, Gilbert Blythe. I like you a lot and I am so lucky to have you to take care of me.

“Wow, that only took you ten years,” He said with a laugh and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

“Maybe in another ten I’ll tell you that I love you.”

Gilbert laughed so hard that this time he had to be the one shushed.

**Author's Note:**

> I am determined to stave off the boredom of isolation by writing as much fanfic as possible. So if you have requests or prompts please send them in to me!!!
> 
> Here's a link to a post on my tumblr of all of the fandoms I'm down to write a fic for  
> https://macspaperclips.tumblr.com/post/613069342535565312
> 
> "Solitude is creativity's best friend, and solitude is refreshment for our souls."  
> ~Naomi Judd


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